Scotland

I’m an honors student and as part of my honors experience I am required to study abroad for a three week minimum, sounds great right. That’s what I thought too and I am looking forward to it very much but this trip thing is a lot harder to plan than I would have thought. The biggest stipulation is that it is not a vacation experience but rather a trip to learn something and be productive. I decided that since I am a pre-med student than my trip should do something related, my advisor suggested volunteering at a medical clinic in Scotland.
I eagerly agreed and we (along with my honors pre-med boyfriend who’s coming along) began calling random clinics in Scotland. We focused on the areas surrounding Glasgow and Edinburgh and after four months and countless phone calls later we finally found someone who would tolerate us. The sad thing is that was the easy part. We have basically a month to get the whole trip put together and if we want any grant money we have less than a week. Google which is usually so very reliable has been little help in our hunt for a flat to live in. I don’t really blame it on the search engine though but rather on the high prices and poorly designed advertising web sites. There is also food to consider we could stay in bed and breakfast but we would have to eat out all the time and that would add up rather quickly. So were back to renting an apartment with a kitchen, but like I said earlier that isn’t a cheap option.
I think that finding a place to stay will be our toughest decision, but then again there are several other things to consider. Booking a flight isn’t going to be too hard because there really aren’t that many options and all of them are pretty darn expensive. It gets better since we’re too young to rent a car abroad so it looks like well be taking the train or a bug around town. That’s surprisingly expensive too.
Another interesting catch that I hadn’t taken into consideration was the different types of insurance that we would have to obtain, there’s personal liability insurance, medical insurance, and travel insurance so far. And who would have thought that phones calls would be so expensive, the discounted rate is $1.29 per minute for roaming- scary. Looks like it is the internet for us, if we can find and available free one that is.
What I am rapidly learning and what the travel books only made sort of clear is that this little trip is going to be a lot more work than I thought because it’s all oversees. So far my costs are pretty scary and options limited and there is so many little things that I have even yet to consider. Wish me luck guys I need it and if you have any advice I would love to hear it.